1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a new and improved hopper and feed mechanism for plastic binding strips packaged in cassettes wherein the strips are fed one at a time from the cassette onto a transfer table and then fed laterally to an assembly station where the strips and prepunched paper are assembled and subsequently bound. The invention further relates to a method of feeding cassettes and strips into the assembly station of an automatic binding machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Automatic binding machines with which the present invention are used are disclosed in such prior U.S. Pat. Nos. as 5,017,071 and 4,846,616 (see particularly FIGS. 6-10 thereof). These prior binding machines use cassettes of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,674. The present invention comprises a portion of an automatic binding machine (i.e., the hopper for cassettes and the feed means for feeding the strips from the cassettes and into the assembly station) using an improved cassette such as is shown in U.S. application Ser. No. 08/197,003.